Natuurhistorisch Museum Maastricht

The Natural History Museum Maastricht
A journey through time

Take a trip through time. Along tropical swamps 350 million years ago, along with the meaning Meuse lizard Mosasaurs which South Limburg 66 million years ago flooded.

We find a place between the remains of all fossil sea creatures and a piece of a land animal: a gnawed piece dinosaurusbot. The Natural History Museum has the largest collection of Dutch dinosaur bones ... a handful!

Still, a complete skeleton could be reconstructed on the basis of those few small bones.

At the end of the Cretaceous sea lived giant predatory reptiles: the mosasaurs. From the Maastricht chalk limestone we have the fossils of five types of mosasaurs. 65 million years ago, they all died out, but until then they were the undisputed rulers of the sea.

The mosasaurus with the biggest mouth, Prognathodon saturator, better known by his nickname Maastricht "Bèr". The fossil was so big it did not fit in the museum, and therefore the 6000-ton block had its own glass house in the museum garden.

At regular intervals the visitor can experience a live preparation. The public can watch through five cameras and via an intercom questions can be directly asked the taxidermist.

Our current project is Lars, the latest addition to the museum. It is a Mosasaurus hoffmanni who lived nearly 67 million years ago.